Perfecting the gift of giving with Gumtree this Christmas

Sharing secrets from a recent survey carried out by Gumtree on the gift of giving and what people *really want for Christmas! 

Do you stress each year over what to buy your loved ones for Christmas?How many gifts to buy? How much to spend? How much have they bought me? Will my gift be enough? Will they like it?There’s so many thoughts that run through my head when buying Christmas gifts (I’m reassured to know that I’m not the only one with 61% of 2,000 people asked in a survey recently carried out by Gumtree also said that they don’t enjoy giving presents because of the pressure to buy the ‘perfect’ gift). It’s so hard to know what to buy for people; especially in this day and age where people seem to have everything they want and need.We don’t want to spend a lot of money on something that won’t be used or enjoyed; it’s such a hard task to actually get it *right. Luckily for us, Viren Swami; Professor of Social Psycology at Anglia Ruskin University has analysed the Gumtree survey findings to put together some gifting guidelines on what people really want for Christmas (I for one am ALL ears because getting the gift right always seems like a scary task!).Surprisingly, research from the survey has shown that gifts which reflect the personality and interests of the giver tent to be more appreciated than recipient-centric gifts where we often second guess what the recipient might like (so it’s Space NK vouchers and prosecco all round me me then this year LOL!).The last gift guideline created by Viren is that money in place of a Christmas gift is a bad idea as it fails to convey intimacy between the giver and recipient, HOWEVER - gift vouchers for one of their favourite shops instead is a great idea!!The Gumtree survey also produced a ‘real gift list’ (yes you heard that right!), which sums up what people actually want and would ask for at Christmas to make your lives easier this festive season (hurrah for Gumtree!). The top of the real gift list was vouchers where 39% of people said they’d love that as a gift, followed by 27% with clothing, footwear and accessories, and 22% on beauty and fragrance. The remaining percentage was made up of DVDs, alcoholic drinks and oneof items.This year I decided to pick two people that I love dearly to put the Gumtree survey to the test when it comes to buying presents.First up I picked Kat, my wonderful photographer, travel buddy and all round babe of a friend! I’ve known Kat for around 18 months, our relationship started purely work based but quickly turned into a friendship and has seen us travel to our favourite city; New York twice together!I’ve spent a lot of time with  Kat and know where she likes to shop, what her interests are BUT when it came to buying a gift for her I thought a voucher would be best. Having known Kat for just 18 months I didn’t want to buy her something she wouldn’t like; I feel like I know her taste and style enough but wasn’t quite 100%. I opted for a Space NK voucher as I know she adores skincare and makeup, we’re constantly gushing over new releases and which skincare brand we’re currently loving so I absolutely knew she would love to receive a voucher this Christmas! Second up for my gift giving was my BFF, soul sister and ride or die; Amy. Having been best friends for over 15 years we absolutely know what to buy each other (sometimes I feel like I know her better than she knows herself!). By trade Amy is a professional makeup artist so she’s forever building up her kit with incredible brands and latest makeup pieces, BUT this tends to mean that she spends a lot of money on her kit for work and hardly ever gets to treat herself when it comes to beauty purchases.I knew that Space NK would be the perfect place to get Amy’s present and I absolutely wasn’t wrong! She adores Becca makeup (as do I - incredible brand in case you’ve not tried it!). So when I was shown their latest Christmas palette on offer, I absolutely knew it was the perfect gift for her! Genuinely considered the one for you, one for me tactic but then realised this is probably why I’m broke every Christmas haha!It was beautifully gift wrapped in store and I’m SO excited to give her the palette on Christmas Day as I already know she’s going to be obsessed with it (and I’m going to make sure she keeps it for herself!!). Kat was absolutely thrilled with her voucher and I’m super excited to see what she buys with it - following on from the results of the Gumtree and Viren’s analysis, I can safely say that I feel confident in my gift giving this year and have absolutely nailed presents for two of my besties! Now, just to finish off the rest of my shopping!!...How do you find the gift of giving presents at Christmas time? Do you find yourself stressed or worried about presents? Did you find the Gumtree results helping in shopping for loved ones?*This post was in collaboration with Gumtree, all opinions and images as always are my own.